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"They just announced -- only minutes ago -- the final precincts in the WI Supreme Court race and we won!!

WI Republicans are in a panic. There will be a recount, but the damage is already done. In fact, district by district results show major problems for the WI Republican Senators across the state -- especially for Republican Senator Dan Kapanke where JoAnne Kloppenburg won his district handily.

We have the momentum -- now it's time to shut them out! . . .

That's why we need to hit them hard -- right now -- while the energy is highest and deal a fatal blow."

Grassroots progressive groups like Jim Dean's Democracy for America want to keep ads running on television to carry this momentum to upcoming recall elections for those who voted in favor of banning collective bargaining in Wisconsin. Yes, this spells trouble for Walker and Wisconsin Republicans and is likely to carry into 2012.

In Ohio, there are no provisions in the state constitution for recall of elected political officers, except those established by city charters. There are rumblings for a constitutional amendment to create a citizens' rights of recall, but elected and party officials are staying decidedly mum on that issue (since a sword has two edges).

The grassroots fervor in Ohio is then, by necessity, concentrated on putting on the November 2011 statewide ballot a referendum vote on the state's just passed ban on collective bargaining. Labor and its allies in just one weekend had no trouble collecting 3000 signatures for the 1000 signatures threshold needed for a review of the initial petition by the state's attorney general. Once the initial petition is approved, at least 231,000 signatures will be needed no later than June 30, 2011. That short time period is not seen as a significant obstacle, considering the anger that is brewing among what was a listless electorate in 2010.

Meanwhile a Republican state senator who voted with Democrats against the collective bargaining ban was stripped of his committee today. This battle will pitch in many ways and for months to come. With a likely November 2011 referendum election, there will certainly be reverberations in Ohio for the 2012 Congressional and presidential elections.

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